Last season I thought New Orleans was going to impress but injuries stalled out everything save for Anthony Davis’ impressive development. With this move, watch New Orleans to make a playoff push next year.

The Pelicans just got a roster upgrade and the Rockets are clearing cap space to go big game hunting as the result of a deal being finalized that sends center Omer Asik to New Orleans, something first reported by Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports.

The Pelicans are sending back a future (likely 2015) first round pick to Houston.

There are some details to be worked out, this could wait until after July 1 to be finalized so that the Pelicans have cap space (they could also make a draft-day trade to free up a little room)

I like this deal for the Rockets in the sense this is what they have to do to chase Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James as free agents this summer, to form their own “big three” with James Harden and Dwight Howard. All those starts require a lot of cap space — Asik is scheduled to make $8.4 million on the cap next season (his actual payout is closer to $15 million due to a poison pill in his offer sheet). The Rockets wipe that off the books, now also must find a taker for Jeremy Lin where they also take no money back.

I really like this for New Orleans.

The Pelicans want to play Anthony Davis at the four, he has the midrange game on offense and can be more of a come from the weak side shot blocker on defense (think Serge Ibaka when Kendrick Perkins plays). This pairing gives the Pelicans a potentially impressive defensive front line to pair with the backcourt rotation of Jrue Holiday, Eric Gordon and Tyreke Evans.

Oklahoma City traded for Victor Oladipo out of Orlando to be their third scorer, behind Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. It didn’t exactly work out that way, Durant bolted town and when Westbrook went off Oladipo was looking for a place to fit in.

That place turned out to be the Pacers.

Oladipo has been playing like an All-Star this season with Indiana, and last week he was key in snapping Cleveland’s 13 game win streak, then turned around and dropped 47 points on Denver. For the week he averaged 35.7 points a game, shot 45.7 percent from three, plus grabbed 7.7 rebounds per game.